St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-09-19
A PosTHUMoUs BEARD.
An Undertaken Says That the
Whole of a Man Does Not Die

An Undertaken Says That the
Whole of a Man Does Not Die
at Once.
San Francisco Examiner.
Il read in Sundays Examiner an ar
ticle headed Shaving Dead Men, copied
from the Chicago Inter Ocean," said an
Oakland undertaken, who may be said
to have dug deeper into the mysteries
of his profession than most of his mel
ancholy brotherhood. SIT describes a
barber, who had shaved many corpses,
speaking in jeering words of an English
dude who cautioned him against taking
the stubble off the neck of his defunct
relative upward, instead of downward,
because the hair would afterward grow
improperly;
''The barber evidently supposed that
the beard ceased to grow after a mans
death, but that is not the case at all. If
the body is preserved from decay by be-
ing buried in an iron, alright casket,
the beard will not die, but will go on
growing just so long as corruption is
averted. L do not think the hair of the
head ever increases in length, but, you
know, even in life mans locks become
scanty. and finally disappear altogether,
as he grows old, while his age usually
only serves to make his beard thicker
and longer. / can vouch for the vital
ity of the hair that sprouts from the
chin.
"When the war closed I was an UNI
dertaker in Richmond, Va, and / was
employed to direct the funeral of we'll
known Southern merchant who had
freely lavished his large fortune in aid
ing the COnfederates in their hopeless
struggle. He died of something to
which the doctors could give no name,
but which his family, who were obliged
to go to the North to enable the sons to
earn a livelihood, had no
hesitation in calling broken
heart, Loyalty sacrificed to the Lost
Cause. He was an elderly man, who
always kept his face clean shaved, and
after his death his widow, who was
many years younger than her husband,
desired that a barber should remove the
bristles that had grown upon his skin
while he was in the state of mental in
difference to outward things that is the
fOrerunner of such death as his.
His face. if [ may use the expression,
was as smooth as a new-laid egg when
he was stretched in caSt-iron coffin,
which was then Theoretically sealed and
placed in the family vault, which, after
the custom of many Southern people at
that time, was on the plantation owned
by the family. The remains were the
last deposited there. for the estate
passed into the hands of strangers, who,
as was usual on such occasions, pledged
themselves to leave the burial ground
undisturbed, and to allow it's former
owners access to it at all times.
"Fifteen years passed away, and the
relatives of the dead man, grown rich in
tho EaSt 6pfarminpn tO diSintar tbo
body, remove it to Long Island and bury
it in Greenwood cemetery. They came
to Richmond. where 1 was still doing
business in wretchedly reduced way,
and commissioned me to take the re-
mains from the vault. I did so. and be-
fore they were shipped for the East the
widow expressed a desire to look upon
the face once more. / was satisfied that
the body was in good condition, and 1
removed the lid of the coffin as it lay in
my shop. The lady glanced at the con-
tents, and then, in a paroXysm of grief
and anger, she declared that the body
was not that of her late husband.
''Of course, knew had not commit
ted any error, but confess that at first
| was considerably staggered myself.
On the once smooth chin was growing a
SnOw-white beard that reached almost
to the feet and flowed over the sides of
the corpse, filling nearly all the space
left in the coffin. The clothes and
score of other evidences convinced the
children that they were looking at the
remains of their father, but the widow
refused to be comforted until the post
humous beard had been shaved off,
when she at once recognized the face.
1.-THE body is now in vault at Green
wood, and 1 have no doubt that luxuri-
ant crop of hair again adorns the face.
have seen many cases of similar
kind, but none in which the growth of